How to become a great essay writer

Becoming a great essay writer does not involve any special magic tricks, spells, or incantations. It only involves a few simple steps. Once you get the hang of writing essays, you be able to write them quickly and successfully. You might even enjoy writing them for publication in magazines, journals, and online sources. Here are a few pieces of vital advice for your work towards becoming a great essay writer:

Read lots of essays. One of the best ways to be great at anything is to immerse yourself in the craft. For example, if you want to be a good flute player, you should listen to and watch other people play the instrument. If you want to be a good essay writer, look at what other essay writers do. You will get ideas about introductions and conclusion, body paragraphs and topics sentences, as well as style and voice. You will also learn what readers like to see from their essay writers, as you enjoy playing the role of the essay consumer rather than the producer. While reading good writing does not guarantee that you will be a good writer, it does lend to building vocabulary and reading ability. Read essays from as many sources as possible, so you can enjoy descriptive, narrative, and persuasive essays.

Write lots of essays. Like any skill, writing requires practice. If you are not willing to commit to practicing, then your essay writing skills will not improve; they will remain static and possible even decline. You do not necessarily even have to write essays to improve your skills, but you must write in an organized fashion. Your writing should have cohesive paragraphs, whether you are writing blog posts, creative stories, or a paragraph or two. When you start to neglect the rules of writing, your writing will not improve. As you write more and more, you will notice that you can craft intelligent sentences faster and faster. Not only will your writing improve, but your organizational skills for writing will improve, too.

Learn vocabulary. One of the keys to good writing is to learn new words. The best writers have strong personal vocabularies - they simply know a lot of words. You can teach yourself new words, especially when you read the essays by other authors. Many writers will keep their own personal dictionaries of words they encounter in their reading and listening so they can eventually add those new words into their own work. When you use your own vocabulary during a writing session, your writing will flow more naturally because you know the words.

Challenge yourself. The best writers will give themselves personal challenges. You might look into writing an essay for a contest, or trying to get a favorite published on a popular writing website. When you decide to write for other people to read, you will quickly realize how important it is to plan, organize, and execute your essay a bit differently than you did when you were just writing for a professor. Most student who enter essays in competitions or challenges also write outstanding essays for their school assignments.

Master the art of the paragraph. Essays are made up of paragraphs, so you should be sure to write outstanding paragraphs. This means you need topic sentences that refer to the thesis as well as sentences that provide ample support. Along with the support, you also need to be able to include transitional words and phrases to make reading more accessible. If you can master writing interesting paragraphs, then the rest of the essay will be easy to write.